The Critical Mass 2011 top 50 is out and as always it’s an outstanding resource for anyone looking for photographers to hire. Take a look and congratulations to those who made the cut. Go here to see the list with pictures.

Jane Fulton Alt
Evgenia Arbugaeva
Jessica Auer
Mary Ellen Bartley
Daniel Beltra
Nadine Boughton
Colette Campbell-Jones
Christopher Capozziello/AEVUM
Kirk Crippens
John Cyr
Katrina d’Autremont
Scott Dalton
Christopher Dawson
Nigel Gordon Dickinson
Mitch Dobrowner
Carolyn Drake
Jeremy Dyer
Mark Fernandes
Michelle Frankfurter
Misha Friedman
Lucia Ganieva
Meggan Gould
Gabriela Herman
Sarah Hobbs
Jeroen Hofman
Jennifer Hudson
Yaakov Israel
Heidi Kirkpatrick
Alejandra Laviada
Fritz Liedtke
Sebastian Liste
Gloriann Liu
Larry Louie
Mark Lyon
Michael Marten
Rizwan Mirza
Viviane Moos
Kenneth O Halloran
Susana Raab
Jesse Rieser
Alejandro Rivas
Kent Rogowski
Philipp Scholz Rittermann
Geoffrey H. Short
Youngsuk Suh
Daro Sulakauri
Stephen Vaughan
Toshiya Watanabe
David Welch
Sarah Wilson
Susan Worsham

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The Lucie Awards were held last night. Always an exciting event because the honorees, presenters and nominees are the luminaries of the photography industry and the winners get to walk up on stage and accept a statue. Here are the winners:

International Photographer of the Year went to Majid Saeedi
Discovery of the Year Award went to Anna di Prospero
International Photographer of the Year – Deeper Perspective Award went to Daniel Beltrá
Picture Editor of the year went to Kira Pollack, Time Magazine
Photography Magazine of the Year went to ZOOM
Fashion Layout of the Year went to W Magazine for Tilda Swinton, photographed by Tim Walker
Book Publisher of the Year went to Chris Boot, Ltd for Infidel by Tim Hetherington
Photography Curator/Exhibition of the Year – Kohle Yohannan for Beauty Culture at the Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles

The 2011 honorees were:
Dawoud Bey for Achievement in Portraiture
Bill Eppridge for Achievement in Photojournalism
Rich Clarkson for Achievement in Sports
Nobuyoshi Araki for Achievement in Fine Art
Nancy McGirr and Fotokids for Humanitarian Award
Eli Reed for Achievement in Documentary Photography Award
The International Center of Photography received The 2011 Spotlight Award

Congratulations to everyone.

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The 2011 PDN Photo Annual went live on their website this week (here). Tons of fantastic photography. Congratulations to all the winners.

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More, here.

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This Friday is the big SPD (Society of Publication Designers) Gala where the winner for Magazine of the Year will be announced. Additionally there’s a whole slew of awards for photography: Cover, Entire Issue, Section (single and multiple issues), Feature and Service, Profiles, News/Reportage, Travel/Food/Still Life, Fashion Beauty and Trade/Corporate.

Download the list of nominees (here).

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The American Society of Magazines Editors announced the finalists for their Print Award categories yesterday (Digital awards were given last month). Here are the nominees for photography and Design:

DESIGN, PRINT
Honors overall excellence in magazine design, including the use of illustration and photography

Esquire
For May, October, November Issues

Fortune
For March 22, May 3, November 1 Issues

GQ
For June, August, December Issues

New York
For February 22-March 1, April 19, May 17 Issues

Wired
For June, July, August Issues

PHOTOGRAPHY, PRINT
Honors overall excellence in magazine photography

GQ
For August, November, December Issues

Martha Stewart Living
For August, October, November Issues

National Geographic
For February, April, December Issues

The New York Times Magazine
For February 7, March 21, December 12 Issue

W
For September, October, November Issues

NEWS AND DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY
Honors photojournalism and photography that documents news, sports and entertainment events and news-related subjects

National Geographic
For “Veiled Rebellion,” by Elizabeth Rubin; photographs by Lynsey Addario
December

The New York Times Magazine
For “The Shrine Down the Hall,” photographs by Ashley Gilbertson; essay by Dexter Filkins
March 21

The New York Times Magazine
For “Dumping Across the Digital Divide,” photographs by Pieter Hugo
August 15

TIME
For “The Perils of Pregnancy: One Woman’s Tale of Dying to Give Birth,” by Alice Park; photographs by Lynsey Addario
June 14

Virginia Quarterly Review
For “The Cocaine Coast,” essay and photographs by Marco Vernaschi
Winter

FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
Honors portraiture; fashion, travel and nature photography; and food, shelter and other still-life photography conceptual photography; and photo-illustration

AARP The Magazine
For “The Me I Used to Be,” by Frank Yuvancic; photographs by Gregg Segal
November-December

ESPN The Magazine
For “Bodies We Want,” reporting by Morty Ain
October 18

National Geographic
For “One Cubic Foot,” by Edward O. Wilson; photographs by David Littschwager
February

The New York Times Magazine
For “Fifteen Actors Acting,” photographs by Solve Sundsbo; introduction by A.O. Scott
December 12

W
For “The East Enders,” by Ted Polhemus; portfolio by Tim Walker
September

Congratulations to the creatives and photographers involved in each (Lynsey Addario twice!). It’s always an honor to be nominated. See the full list (here).

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PDN’s annual “30 photographers to watch” is now live on their site. Always a favorite of mine because of the high quality and there are inevitably people who’s work I’m unfamiliar with. For the photographers on the list it’s a good opportunity to get some exposure and do a little marketing. Congratulations to this years class:

Rachel Barrett [Fine Art, Rich Colors]
David Black [Fine Art influenced portrait, light leaked color]
Bartholomew Cooke [still-Life, German Influence]
Philip Cheung [Documentary, war]
Nicholas Alan Cope [Still-Life, Dutch Light to monotone]
Katrina d’Autremont [Fine Art, Family]
Adam Dean [Photojournalism, war]
Nicolò Degiorgis [Documentary, living on the fringe]
Giulio di Sturco [Photojournalism, Art Influenced]
Rebecca Drobis [Kids Lifestyle, Rich Color]
Pari Dukovic [Documentary, Street]
Dyad Photography [Still-Life, Dutch Light]
Justin Fantl [Still-Life and Fine Art]
Dima Gavrysh [Photojournalism, Art Influenced]
Nick Hall [Active, Outdoor]
Erik Madigan Heck [Abstract Fine Art, Art Influenced Fashion]
Ryan Heffernan [Environmental Portrait, Active Outdoors]
Liz Hingley [Documentary, Fine Art]
Therese + Joel [Cinematic Environmental Portrait]
Matthew Kristall [Youth culture and lifestyle]
Spencer Lowell [Environmental Still-Life, Art influenced Landscape]
Silja Magg [Fashion, Rich Color, Dutch Light]
Joel Micah Miller [Commercial, Car, People]
Ivor Prickett [Documentary, Art Influenced]
Justine Reyes [Fine Art Still and Family, Dutch Light]
Jody Rogac [Contemporary Fashion]
Will Steacy [Environmental Fine Art]
Judith Stenneken [Fine Art, Abstract]
Daro Sulakauri [Documentary, Dutch Light]
Susan Worsham [Fine Art, Family]

Note: I added some descriptive tags that represent my internal way of cataloging. I’m a bit rusty at it, so I can remove if you think it’s a distraction.

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2011 Award Recipients

• Nicholas Mendise (New York, NY)
• Devin Tepleski (Victoria, Canada)
• Christoph Engel (Karlsruhe, Germany)
• Jonathan Smith (Brooklyn, NY)
• Gareth Kingdon (Cardiff, Wales, UK)
• Victor Yuliev (Saint Petersburg, Russia)
• Rena Effendi (Baku, Azerbaijan)
• Thomas Stanworth (Deeside, Wales, UK)

2011 Honorable Mentions

• Christopher Vongsawat (Brooklyn, NY)
• Ivo Rafailov (Burgas, Bulgaria)
• Ryan Obermeyer (Austin, TX)
• Brandon Schulman (Brooklyn, NY)
• Jenny Johannesson (Pacifica, CA)
• Julie Soefer (Houston, TX)
• Alix Smith (New York, NY)
• Ariel Bernades (Minneapolis, MN)
• Nils Orth (Brooklyn, NY)
• David Wright (Syracuse, NY)

Hearst Corporation today announced the winners of the second Hearst 8 X 10 Photography Biennial, an international competition that recognizes the work of talented young photographers—eight rising artists whose vision will shape the future of the creative media landscape, selected by 10 of the world’s foremost photographers, gallery owners and magazine professionals. The 2011 Hearst 8 X 10 Photography Biennial garnered more than 4,600 entries from across the U.S. as well as 70 other countries, five times the number of entries garnered in the 2009 inaugural competition.

[Note: copied straight from the press release]

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Critical Mass 2010 announced their top 50 (here). Always a good place to find great photography.

And, the Lucies were held last night in NYC. The winners were:

International Photographer of the Year Award went to Jim Krantz.

Discovery of the Year Award went to Kristina Kostadinova.

International Photographer of the Year – Deeper Perspective Award went to Rodney Rascona.

The IPA also conferred awards in six support categories:
Picture Editor of the Year – Jody Quon, W Magazine.

Photo Magazine of the Year – Aperture.
Fashion Layout of the Year – Harper’s Bazaar Fashion and All That Jazz by Peter Lindbergh.
Book Publisher of the Year – 21st Editions for Listen by Herman Leonard.
Print Advertising Campaign of the Year – Agency- Ogilvy & Mather Paris for Unicef Entitled Class Photo Photographed by Vincent Dixon.
Photography Curator of the Year – Engaged Observers: Documentary Photography since the 60′s Curated by Brett Abbott at The J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

The 2010 honorees were:
David Goldblatt (Lifetime Achievement)
Graciela Iturbide (Achievement in Fine Art)
Lee Tanner (Achievement in Documentary)
Howard Bingham (Achievement in Photojournalism)>James Drake (Achievement in Sports)
Tina Barney (Achievement in Portraiture)
Michael Nyman (Double Exposure Award)
Ariel Shanberg, The Woodstock Center for Photography (Spotlight Award)
Alyssa Adams for the Eddie Adams Photographic Workshop,  (Visionary Award)

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PDN has their photo annual live on the website now (here). Lots of great work and some crossover from the American Photography Book which is always good to see.

Congratulations to all the winners. Amazing work from last year.

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American Photography has released a slideshow of this year’s winners via their facebook page. Many photo editors will be browsing through the images and googling the names they don’t recognize (why no links AP?) to find someone new to add to their list. Also, for the names they recognize it serves as a subtle reminder to give them a job soon.

If you want to test your photo editor skills see how many photographers you can name based on looking at the thumbs only. The Schoeller’s and Greenberg’s are easy to spot and also anything memorable from last year’s editorial calendar like the Kander’s, Platon’s, Pellegrin’s, Rubin’s and Ommanney’s.

Congratulations to all the photographers selected for the book and the website.

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Winning publications with the words “New York” in the title: New York (4 awards), The New Yorker (3 awards), The New York Times Magazine (1 award): 8 — via The Fix

PHOTOGRAPHY / PRINT
Honors the effectiveness of photography, photojournalism and photo-illustration in support of the editorial mission of the magazine

Winner: Vanity Fair: Graydon Carter, Editor for March, September, November Issues

Finalists:

* GQ
* National Geographic
* The New York Times Style Magazine
* Vogue

PHOTOJOURNALISM
Recognizes the informative photographic documentation of an event or subject

Winner: National Geographic: Chris Johns, Editor-in-Chief for “Shattered Somalia,” photographs by Pascal Maitre; text by Robert Draper, May

Finalists:

* Foreign Policy
* National Geographic
* New York
* Virginia Quarterly Review
* Time

PHOTO PORTFOLIO
Honors creative photography and photo illustration, including portraiture

Winner: The New Yorker: David Remnick, Editor for “Portraits of Power,” photographs by Platon, December 7

Finalists:

* National Geographic
* New York
* Out
* W

The rest of the winners can be found (here).

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Congratulations to the class of 2010, read and see it (here):
Levi Brown
Alejandro Cartagena
Scott Conarroe
Sumit Dayal
Clémence de Limburg
Gratiane de Moustier
Danfung Dennis
Lauren Dukoff
Matt Eich
Matthieu Gafsou
Marcelo Gomes
Deborah Hamon
Estelle Hanania
Ben Hoffmann
Sohrab Hura
Wayne Lawrence
Brent Lewin
Eman Mohammed
Adrian Mueller
Nick Onken
Alex Prager
Thomas Prior
Ben Roberts
Anna Skladmann
Andy Spyra
Gabriele Stabile
Peter van Agtmael
Elizabeth Weinberg
Yang Yi
Reed Young

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Photography awards after the jump. The whole list is (here).

PHOTO: COVER
IL – Intelligence in Lifestyle, Luca Pitoni, Creative Director, Raffaele Vertaldi, Director of Photography, Charles Fréger,
Photographer; September 2009, “Ora Comando Io”

New York, Chris Dixon, Design Director, Jody Quon, Director of Photography, Art Streiber, Photographer; September 21, 2009,
“Neil Patrick Harris”

The New York Times Magazine, Arem Duplessis, Design Director, Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography, Paolo Pellegrin, Photographer;
February 8, 2009, “Great Performers”

The New York Times Magazine, Arem Duplessis, Design Director, Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography, Robert Maxwell, Photographer;
October 25, 2009, “The Audacity of Precious”

W, Dennis Freedman, Creative Director, Edward Leida, Design Director, Chuck Close, Photographer; February 2009, “Brad Pitt”
W, Edward Leida, Design Director, Steven Klein, Photographer; March 2009, “Blame It On Rio xx Madonna”

PHOTO: ENTIRE ISSUE
ESPN the Magazine, Siung Tjia, Creative Director, Catriona Ni Aolain, Director of Photography; October 19, 2009,
“The Body Issue”

New York, Chris Dixon, Design Director, Jody Quon, Director of Photography; March 23, 2009, “Spring Fashion Issue”

The New York Times Magazine, Arem Duplessis, Design Director, Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography;
January 18, 2009, “Obama’s People”

W, Edward Leida, Design Director, Steven Klein, Photographer; March 2009, “Blame It On Rio xx Madonna”

W, Edward Leida, Design Director, Nadia Vellam, Photo Editor; November 2009, “The Art Issue”

PHOTO: SECTION (from a single issue)
Bon Appétit, Matthew Lenning, Design Director, Bailey Franklin, Director of Photography, Levi Brown, Photographer; March 2009,
“At the Market: Potatoes”

Men’s Health, Brandon Kavulla, Creative Director, Brenda Milis, Director of Photography; December 2009,
“Health, Nutrition Departments”

T, The New York Times Style Magazine, David Sebbah, Creative Director, Natasha Lunn, Photo Editor; October 18, 2009,
“London is Burning T”

Vanity Fair, David Harris, Design Director, Susan White, Director of Photography; December 2009, “Lanvin Extraordinaire”

WIRED, Scott Dadich, Creative Director; April 2009, “Splash Page: Bubbles”

PHOTO: SECTION (multiple issues)
Field & Stream, Neil Jamieson, Art Director, Amy Berkley, Photo Editor; March, August, September 2009, Dec 09/Jan 10,
“Bullet Points”

Interior Design Magazine, Cindy Allen, Creative Director, Helene Oberman, Photo Editor; April, July 2009, “Centerfold”

New York, Chris Dixon, Design Director, Jody Quon, Director of Photography; “Culture Pages”

New York, Chris Dixon, Design Director, Jody Quon, Director of Photography; “Strategist Openers”

The New York Times Magazine, Arem Duplessis, Design Director, Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography; “Cooking with Dexter”

PHOTO: FEATURE, SERVICE (single/spread)
Best Life, Brandon Kavulla, Creative Director, Ryan Cadiz, Director of Photography; March 2009, “The New Science of Hair Growth”

Men’s Health, Brandon Kavulla, Creative Director, Brenda Milis, Director of Photography, Craig Cutler, Photographer;
October 2009, “Everything You Know About Muscle Is Wrong”

New York, Chris Dixon, Design Director, Jody Quon, Director of Photography, Horacio Salinas, Photographer; February 16, 2009
“Mattresses”

O, the Oprah Magazine, Kerry Robertson, Design Director, Katherine Schad, Director of Photography, Jill Greenberg, Photographer;
June 2009, “If We Could Talk to Animals”

Psychology Today, Edward Levine, Creative Director,

PHOTO: FEATURE, SERVICE (story)
Martha Stewart Living, Eric Pike, Creative Director, James Dunlinson, Design Director, Heloise Goodman, Director of Photography,
Hans Gissinger, Photographer; April 2009, “A Fish Techniques Refresher”

Men’s Health, Brandon Kavulla, Creative Director, Brenda Milis, Director of Photography, Romulo Yanes, Photographer;
November 2009, “Go Fish”

Real Simple, Janet Froelich, Creative Director, Casey Tierney, Director of Photography, Christopher Griffith, Photographer;
October 2009, “You Can Tackle the Laundry”

WIRED Italy, David Moretti, Art Director, Francesca Morosini, Photo Editor, Ciro Frank Schappa, Photographer; October 2009,
“Mi Chiaro Enrico E Stampo Case”

WIRED Italy, David Moretti, Art Director, Francesca Morosini, Photo Editor, Christopher LaMarca, Photographer; November 2009,
“I Migliori Scatti Della Nostra Vita”

PHOTO: FEATURE, PROFILE, NON-CELEBRITY (single/spread)
ESPN the Magazine, Siung Tjia, Creative Director, Catriona Ni Aolain, Director of Photography, Stefan Ruiz, Photographer;
July 13, 2009, “Love the Spotlight—Santonio Holmes”

ESPN the Magazine, Siung Tjia, Creative Director, Catriona Ni Aolain, Director of Photography, Sean Davey, Photographer;
September 7, 2009, “In His Element”

Fortune, Robert Perino, Design Director, Greg Pond, Director of Photography, Christopher Griffith, Photographer;
November 23, 2009, “The Decade of Steve”

Popular Mechanics, Michael Lawton, Design Director, Allyson Torrisi, Director of Photography, Phillip Toledano, Photographer;
February 2009, “NASA Discontents”

Real Simple, Janet Froelich, Creative Director, Casey Tierney, Director of Photography, Jessica Todd Harper, Photographer;
November 2009, “The Most Meaningful Part of My Day”

PHOTO: FEATURE, PROFILE, NON-CELEBRITY (story)
ESPN the Magazine, Siung Tjia, Creative Director, Catriona Ni Aolain, Director of Photography, Christian Pondella/Redbull,
Keith Lazzinski, Photographers; February 23, 2009, “Deep Play”

ESPN the Magazine, Siung Tjia, Creative Director, Catriona Ni Aolain, Director of Photography; October 19, 2009,
“Bodies We Want”

The New York Times Magazine, Arem Duplessis, Design Director, Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography, Nadav Kander,
Photographer; January 18, 2009, “Obama’s People”

TIME, Arthur Hochstein, Art Director, Kira Pollack, Director of Photography, Dan Winters for TIME, Photographer;
December 28, 2009 – January 4, 2010, “The 2009 Person of the Year: Ben Bernanke”

PHOTO: FEATURE, PROFILE, CELEBRITY/ENTERTAINMENT (single/spread)
GQ, Fred Woodward, Design Director, Dora Somosi, Director of Photography; January 2009, “Lil Wayne”

New York, Chris Dixon, Design Director, Jody Quon, Director of Photography, Mary Ellen Mark, Photographer;
May 4, 2009, “A Nonfiction Marriage”

The New Yorker, Elisabeth Biondi, Director of Photography, Martin Schoeller, Photographer; March 2, 2009, “The Actress”
Vanity Fair, David Harris, Design Director, Susan White, Director of Photography, Art Streiber, Photographer; August 2009,
“The Grapes of Wrath”

PHOTO: FEATURE, PROFILE, CELEBRITY/ENTERTAINMENT (story)
GQ, Fred Woodward, Design Director, Dora Somosi, Director of Photography, Martin Schoeller, Photographer; December 2009,
“Men of the Year Portfolio”

The New York Times Magazine, Arem Duplessis, Design Director, Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography, Paolo Pellegrin,
Photographer; February 8, 2009, “Great Performers”

T, The New York Times Style Magazine, David Sebbah, Creative Director, Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography, Inez van Lamsweerde
& Vinoodh Matadin, Photographers; May 31, 2009, “Hearts of Palme”

Vanity Fair, David Harris, Design Director, Susan White, Director of Photography, Annie Leibovitz, Photographer; March 2009,
“Something Just Clicked

W, Edward Leida, Design Director, Steven Klein, Photographer; March 2009, “Blame It On Rio”

PHOTO: FEATURE, NEWS/REPORTAGE (single/spread)
ESPN the Magazine, Siung Tjia, Creative Director, Catriona Ni Aolain, Director of Photography, Naomi Harris, Photographer;
October 19, 2009, “No Shirts, No Shorts, Lots of Service”

ESPN the Magazine, Siung Tjia, Creative Director, Catriona Ni Aolain, Director of Photography; October 19, 2009, “Cutting It Close”

GQ, Fred Woodward, Design Director, Dora Somosi, Director of Photography, Joshua Lutz, Photographer; September 2009,
“Tent Cities U.S.A.”

The New York Times Magazine, Arem Duplessis, Design Director, Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography, Mark Peterson,
Photographer; February 22, 2009, “Rescue Flight”

The New York Times Magazine, Arem Duplessis, Design Director, Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography, Anthony Almeida—Danziger
Projects, Photographer; February 22, 2009, “The First Marriage”

PHOTO: FEATURE, NEWS/REPORTAGE (story)
Marie Claire, Suzanne Sykes, Creative Director, Alex Campbell, Director of Photography; March 2009, “The Big Picture”

National Geographic, David Whitmore, Design Director, David Griffin, Director of Photography, Vincent J. Musi, Photographer;
February 2009, “Where the Dead Don’t Sleep”

National Geographic, David Whitmore, Design Director, David Griffin, Director of Photography, Martin Schoeller, Photographer;
December 2009, “The Hadza”

The New York Times Magazine, Arem Duplessis, Design Director, Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography, Peter van Agtmael,
Photographer; October 18, 2009, “His Long War”

TIME, Arthur Hochstein, Art Director, Kira Pollack, Director of Photography, Adam Ferguson — VII Mentor Program for TIME,
Photographer; October 12, 2009, “A Window on the War”

PHOTO: FEATURE, TRAVEL/FOOD/STILL LIFE (single/spread)
Best Life, Brandon Kavulla, Creative Director, Ryan Cadiz, Director of Photography; April 2009, “The CEO Suicides”

CUT—Leute Machen Kleider, Lucie Schmid, Art Director, Lucie Schmid, Director of Photography, Gabriela Neeb, Photographer;
September 18, 2009,

Men’s Health, Brandon Kavulla, Creative Director, Brenda Milis, Director of Photography, Nathaniel Welch, Photographer;
June 2009, “The Beauty of the Beast”

The New York Times Magazine, Arem Duplessis, Design Director, Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography, Mitchell Feinberg,
Photographer; October 11, 2009, “Against Meat”

WIRED, Scott Dadich, Creative Director; August, 2009, “Primordial Yeast”

PHOTO: FEATURE, TRAVEL/FOOD/STILL LIFE (story)
Condé Nast Portfolio, Robert Priest, Design Director, Karen Frank, Director of Photography, Henry Leutwyler, Photographer;
April 2009, “The Thriller is Gone”

T, The New York Times Style Magazine, David Sebbah, Creative Director, Judith Puckett-Rinella, Sr. Photo Editor, Ilan Rubin,
Photographer; May 31, 2009, “Color Forms”

Texas Monthly, T.J. Tucker, Creative Director, Leslie Baldwin, Photo Editor, Todd Hido, Photographer; October 2009, “Fear Factor”

W, Edward Leida, Design Director, Stephen Shore, Photographer; November 2009, “The Private World of Ingmar Bergman”

Wired, Scott Dadich, Creative Director; May, 2009, “Mystery Spots”
PHOTO: FEATURE, FASHION/BEAUTY (single/spread)
Best Life, Brandon Kavulla, Creative Director, Ryan Cadiz, Director of Photography, Nino Muñoz, Photographer; April 2009,
“Not a Businessman—A Business, Man”

More, Debra Bishop, Creative Director, Plamen Petkov, Photographer; April 2009, “The Biggest Loser”

More, Debra Bishop, Creative Director, Stacey Baker, Director of Photography, Tom Schierlitz, Photographer; October 2009,
“Big Beauty Try-On”

Real Simple, Janet Froelich, Creative Director, Casey Tierney, Director of Photography, Roland Bello, Photographer;
September 2009, “The Hardest-Working Wardrobe”

Washingtonian Bride & Groom, Pum Lefebure, Jake Lefebure, Creative Directors, Cade Martin, Photographer; June 2009,
“Game Day”

PHOTO: FEATURE, FASHION/BEAUTY (story)
More, Debra Bishop, Creative Director, Stacey Baker, Director of Photography, Nigel Cox, Photographer; September 2009,
“Rhapsody in Red”

New York, Chris Dixon, Design Director, Jody Quon, Director of Photography, Marcus Bleasdale, Photographer;
March 24-31, 2009, “Exquisite Circus”

The New York Times Magazine, Arem Duplessis, Design Director, Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography, Malick Sidibé,
Photographer; April 5, 2009, “Prints and the Revolution”

W, Dennis Freedman, Creative Director, Edward Leida, Design Director, Steven Klein, Photographer; July 2009, “Honeymoon Hotel”

W, Edward Leida, Design Director, Craig McDean, Photographer; September 2009, “Paper Bag Princess”

PHOTO: FEATURE, TRADE/CORPORATE (single/spread/story)
Earnshaw’s, Nancy Campbell, Creative Director, Michael Brian, Photographer; March 2009, “Fur-Ocious”

Footwear Plus, Nancy Campbell, Creative Director, Andrew Woffinden, Photographer; March 2009, “Suburbia”

Hemispheres, Rob Hewitt, Art Director, Erin Giunta, Photo Editor, Stefan Killen, Photographer; October 2009, “Finders Keepers”

Ud & Se, Torsten Hogh Rasmussen, Design Director, Kristian Soederup, Photographer; April 2009, “With God On Our Side”

Ud & Se, Torsten Hogh Rasmussen, Design Director, Casper Balslev, Photographer; July 2009, “Recess”

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I remember my first encounter with a fat wolf. I was researching stock images of wolves for a story we were running in Outside Magazine and I could find nothing I liked. All the wolves from the specific location in the story looked like mangy old flea-bitten dogs. It wasn’t until I widened my search to include any wolf photo available as stock did I discover healthy, strong, wolf looking wolves. Upon further inspection I learned that these were captive wolves (who apparently are well fed).

If you haven’t heard the recent uproar about Spanish wildlife photographer Jose Luis Rodriguez being awarded first place (here) in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest run by the British Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine then being stripped of the award (here) after people called into question the authenticity of the wolf in his winning image (here).

I quickly lost all interest in the controversy when I read this (here):

“José Luis started by placing meat in the corral.”

Great wildlife photography for me is equal parts photography and sport. If baiting the animals is acceptable to the judges who cares if it was captive or wild?

I like what photographer Bob Keefer  has to say (here) about the whole kerfuffle:

But the weirdest thing is, the winning photograph is awful. Whether “real” or staged, it’s utterly cheesy, the kind of demented nature porn that has come to dominate the nature photography market around the world. Who cares if it’s a picture of Ossian? It’s boring, overwrought and melodramatic. The judges knew this when they picked it, referring to its “fairy tale” qualities.

The judges should be fired, both for choosing the photograph in the first place and then for their handling of the complaints about it.

Someone online obviously felt the same way. Why stop with one jumping wolf when you can have 3 and a full moon to boot (UPDATE: obviously an homage to the three wolf moon t-shirt phenomenon that went completely over my head – ape):

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Fantastic video from Monocle. Interviews with Edgar Martins, Edward Burtynsky, Christopher Anderson and winner Nadav Kander.

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UPDATE: Jeanette Ward the Publicist from theresasimon.com just called me on the phone to bitch at me for breaking their news embargo on the winner of this prize. I was told all the photographers were very upset that I made the announcement. I think it’s insane that you would email blast bloggers the winner of a prize you haven’t handed out yet. PR at its worst.

Kofi Annan awards £60,000 (CHF100,000) Prix Pictet photography prize for environmental sustainability to Nadav Kander

Nadav Kander (Israel, 1961)
Nominated for Yangtze, The Long River Series, 2006-07
Kandar has documented the rapidly changing landscape and communities of China’s Yangtze River, from its mouth to source. More people live on the river’s 6500km of banks than in America. However, China’s current programme of development is also destroying the country’s heritage and displacing many of its people. Kander is a regular contributor to many international publications, including The New York Times Magazine, for whom he recently documented ‘Obama’s People’. His many international awards and nominations include most recently the Silver Photographer of the Year Award at the Lianzhou International Photo Festival 08 in China.

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Picture Editor of the year – Steve Fine – Sports Illustrated

Photo Magazine of the Year – www.burnmagazine.org

Fashion Layout of the Year – Harper’s Bazaar – Thriller Fashion by Terry Richardson

Book Publisher of the Year – Verso Limited Editions Bruce Davidson – Central Park

Print Advertising Campaign of the Year – FFL France Wrangler We Are Animals Ryan McGinley

Photography Curator of the Year – Sarah Greenough Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans

International Photographer of the Year – Nadav Kander

Discovery of the Year Award – Elliot Wilcox

International Photographer of the Year, Deeper Perspective Award – Rachel Papo

The Spotlight Award – The W.Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, accepted by Marcel Saba, the fund’s current President.

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Joerg Colberg had a contest this summer and Bradley Peters was one of the winners. The prize was an interview and it’s really a great read:

Jörg Colberg: In your “Home Theater” statement, you’re describing your work as “allowing a ‘staged’ photograph to break down and [...] then [to] spiral into the spontaneous.” I just have to ask – especially given your Yale background: What’s wrong with staged photography? Why have it break down?

Bradley Peters: It’s not an issue of something being “wrong” but rather my interest in something that no one seems to speak of much these days… luck. I’m not interested in coming up with a really well defined idea and then making a picture that illustrates that concept. My photographic foundation was built in small camera, black & white street photography, I mean that’s basically the only way I shot for nearly ten years, and I’m still really interested in letting the world reveal itself in ways that I can’t imagine by myself. Without the breakdown there is very little surprise, which is important to me. I need to feel as though I learned something from the image and if the picture turns out exactly the way I wanted, I probably didn’t learn anything that I didn’t already know. In a way, I probably didn’t even need to make the picture in the first place. There was a really good interview in LA Weekly a couple years ago with John Szarkowski that I think speaks to this point:

“Some photographers think the idea is enough. I told a good story in my Getty talk, a beautiful story, to the point: Ducasse says to his friend Mallarmé — I think this is a true story — he says, ‘You know, I’ve got a lot of good ideas for poems, but the poems are never very good.” Mallarmé says, “Of course, you don’t make poems out of ideas, you make poems out of words.’ Really good, huh? Really true. So, photographers who aren’t so good think that you make photographs out of ideas. And they generally get only about halfway to the photograph and think that they’re done.”

Read more on Conscientious.

I’m a huge fan of luck and unexpected results in photography, but I think many younger photographers don’t like pictures that they didn’t intend to happen, because it feels like you have no control over the outcome. I’ve also heard the argument that because amateurs get lucky once in awhile it somehow invalidates pictures that you didn’t expect. I can tell you that photographers who take these kinds of pictures have portfolios filled with lucky shots and that’s no accident. I can also tell you that shooting this way can be extremely nerve-racking and of course from the client side of the equation you have to sell everyone on a picture that wasn’t planned for. It’s just as difficult to use luck as it is to nail everything down from beginning to end.

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The Aftermath Project was the winner of the humanitarian award at last year’s Lucie Awards (here). I was there that night live blogging the event for fun and Sara Terry’s speech was certainly one of the highlights for me. Not only because of the gravitas of the Aftermath Project but also how well she conveyed the importance of photography and projects like this.

“I was a writer but had a personal crisis and words failed me for the first time in my life so I picked up a camera to communicate…”

“… the stories we hold up define who we are as a society.”

The book from last year’s project is out now (here):

In addition to that they are now accepting applications for their fourth year of granting (2010); and will be giving out two grants, for $20,000 each. The application deadline is Nov 2nd (here).

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I guess ASME (American Society of Magazine Editors) can’t wait for 2009 to end because they’ve got the Best Magazine Cover of the Year award going already and this year the voting is open to the public on Amazon (here).

This is going to be a cool experiment to see what kind of cover the amazon buying public likes. There are quite a few covers missing the coverlines which I presume are the subscriber copies and just looking at those makes you realize how coverlines ruin a good cover. Then there are the illustrated covers which I’d be willing to bet will lose out to the photographs in any category where there’s a strong picture. The best part is that they have all the photographers properly credited so you can click on a cover and see who shot it. That brings up an interesting cover competition in the food category:

Nigel Cox vs. Kenji Toma vs. Roland Bello

Also in the Obama Cover section it’s Peter Yang vs. Nadav vs. Chessum vs. Joe Raedle/Getty

I thought this Stephen Wilkes cover in the Science, Technology and Nature Category was cool:

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Joerg is running a free portfolio competition over on Conscientious aimed at discovering some emerging talent:

The winner of the competition will have her or his work featured here on this blog, in the form of an extended conversation/interview (which, of course, also showcases the photography). Details below.

First of all, the Conscientious Portfolio Competition (CPC) is free. It’s no pay-to-play scheme. There are no costs involved for you, other than whatever time it takes to send me your stuff.

Second, CPC is aimed at emerging photographers. Of course, the term “emerging” is not extremely well defined; what it means that photographers not represented by a gallery will get preferential treatment over those that already are (but of course, the quality of the work also plays an important role).

Read about it (Here)
It will be interesting to see what he turns up. Whenever I’ve done something similar in the past I’ve discovered excellent photographers I knew nothing about.

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Lens Culture has published audio interviews with 38 photographers (here) that I discovered via Gallery Hopper.

I remember a few months back some very provocative quotes coming from a speech Stephen Mayes gave but I’m not sure if the full audio ever made it out. Len’s Culture has it (here) along with those wonderful quotes:

“I wonder if World Press Photo is peeling away from reflecting the media as it is, and is rather reflecting the media the way we wish it were. Of the 376 images awarded prizes this year, I would be curious to know how many have been published in a paid-for context. Maybe all of them. Maybe. But the overall impression that I’m left with from the 470,214 images that I have seen entered into the contest in the current decade, is that they reflect a form of photojournalism that is now more romantic than functional.”

“The overwhelming impression from the vast volume of images is that photojournalism (as a format for interpreting the world) is trying to be relevant by copying itself rather than by observing the world.”

“As one juror said this year, ’90% of the pictures are about 10% of the world.’”

Stephen is the Managing Director of VII Photo Agency and served as Jury Secretary for the World Press Photo Awards from 2004-2009.

UPDATE: It was originally published with the audio on Notes from Nowhere (here).

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At first glance burn Magazine seemed to be a collective of hard line photojournalists and documentarians but the selection of Alejandro (website (here) entry (here)) who photographs fictional scenarios signals that maybe the people who work in that field (see the judges list below) are ready for some changes. Good for them for pushing the boundaries. The grant is given by the Magnum Foundation but the rules state that purely artistic endeavors are welcome.

The Judges:
Maggie Steber – Photographer
James Nachtwey – Photographer VII
Carol Naggar & Fred Ritchen – Historians-Authors-Analysts
Eugene Richards – Photographer
John Gossage – Curator
Scott Thode – Deputy Picture Editor Fortune Magazine
Gilles Peress – Photographer Magnum
David Griffin – Director of Photography National Geographic Magazine
Martin Parr – Photographer Magnum

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PDN has the images from this years photography annual up online (here).

The Marty Forscher Fellowship went to Matthieu Paley and the student award went to Michael Mullady. Nikon Storyteller Award went to Ambroise Tézenas. The Arnold Newman prize went to Jeff Riedel and the Student Award went to Carl Kiilsgaard of Western Kentucky University. Cheers.

There’s some great photography in the winners gallery. I always liked looking through the advertising section so I could match a photographer with a campaign. On the editorial side I saw very few images/photographers that I wasn’t already familiar with, but I think that’s fine. It’s still good to celebrate the great work that was done last year. Corporate is another category I like seeing and discovering photographers, because I don’t follow that side of the business.

In the personal section there’s an incredible surfing image by Ed Freeman that I was bummed to discover is a composite. Ed labels the photography as Fine Art on his website (here) and explains that they’re retouched but I wouldn’t have been able to publish them editorially (back when I used to look in the personal section for images to publish).

Also in the stock category there’s an image that produced a little bit of controversy.

Over on You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice they’re calling it a rip off (here).

The similarities between what’s being dropped, subjects and framing make it too close to ignore but a commenter on YTWWN shows (as we all know) that nothing is new, everything has been done before (here).

Then finally there’s student work. It’s always nice to see students who can already take great pictures.

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The American Photography 25 winners have been announced and this year there’s a slideshow to see everyone’s work (here). It’s really worth the time to sit down and look at all of it, there’s some fantastic images in there. I think judges did a great job of including all the “magazine” style photography that was shot in 2008. I have a pretty big collection of these books and it really is a snapshot of that year in photography.

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To say that my jaw hit the floor when I received an email from Paula Tognarelli, Executive Director of the Griffin Museum of Photography announcing that I would be getting an award is an understatement but the level of shock I felt then could only be called mild compared to the near catatonic state I was in as I stood on stage at the 4th annual Focus awards after they had just honored industry titans Modern Postcard and handed out thick glass award trophies to Russell Hart, Executive Editor of American Photo Magazine a man who might have ended this sentence long ago and then Rosalind Smith a local writer who received a standing ovation. I had just spotted DOP Kathy Ryan in the Second row who was here along with Director and Founder of Visa Pour l’Image Jean-François Leroy to honor the next recipient, Eliane Laffont, editorial director Hachette Filapacchi Magazines and founder of Sygma Photo New Agency, with a lifetime achievement award.

Eliane, by the way, gave a moving acceptance speech on the power of photography and photojournalism in particular where she recounted a poignant moment in her career and really it probably relates to a turning point in the business of photography when Corbis bought Sygma and the new contracts came back and they had changed “photography” to “content” and “photographers” to “content providers.” She concluded by saying although things are looking bad now there is so much great work being made in the world and as long as photojournalists believe, photojournalism will exist.

I wanted to say how cool and original it is that they built an award around the idea that they “honor the work of those who are not photographers but who have been instrumental in building greater awareness of the photographic arts in the general public.” The museum itself is very cozy and from what I understand they have excellent programming. If this award is any indication of the type of out of the box thinking they’re going to continue with in the future then they will become, if they haven’t already a strong voice in the photography world. Actually, the fact that Jean-François would fly in from Europe and Kathy would come up from New York for this one night is a pretty good indicator that they are already a strong voice.

From what I understand Lou Jones our MC for the evening came up with the idea for the award and I’m told by other photographers in the community he really works hard to educate himself and those around him about the future of photography. I was also told there was intense debate around my nomination (and others as well) but nearly everyone I met said they don’t read blogs so I’m guessing there’s handful of young photographers who work with the museum who nominated me and I want to say thanks.

I’m not so much an advocate for blogging as I am for simply doing things online where I strongly believe a great portion of the business of photography will end up. I think blogs are a great way to strengthen the community, to debate new ideas, to stomp out old bad ideas and to find a new path for photography but it’s more important that people working with photography are putting work online and trying new things out to help us all figure out what’s next. I did manage to say in my speech that I believe in the future of photography and that I would like to convince those that have the power to make decisions over the use of photography that there is no greater medium for communication online and once they finally realize this there will be a big bright future awaiting all of us.

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The Griffin Museum of Photography in Boston has their Focus Awards tonight and they’re giving APE the Rising Star award. I’m incredibly honored that they would recognize this blog and just want to say thanks to all the readers, especially the people who take the time to leave a thoughtful comment on a post. It’s been an education for me and it’s really what makes this blog great. Thanks.

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PHOTOGRAPHY
This category recognizes excellence in magazine photography. It honors the effectiveness of photography, photojournalism and photo illustration in enhancing a magazine’s unique mission and personality.

Winner: GQ: Jim Nelson, editor-in-chief; Fred Woodward, design director; Jim Moore, creative director; Anton Ioukhnovets, art director; Dora Somosi, director of photography, for August, November, December issues.

PHOTOJOURNALISM
This category recognizes the informative photographic documentation of an event or subject in real-time. Photo essays accompanied by text are judged primarily on the strength of the photographs.

Winner: National Geographic: Chris Johns, editor-in-chief; David Griffin, director of photography; Kurt F. Mutchler and Susan A. Smith, deputy directors, photography, for Who Murdered the Virunga Gorillas?, by Mark Jenkins, photographs by Brent Stirton, July.

PHOTO PORTFOLIO
This category honors creative photography and photo illustration.

Winner: The New Yorker: David Remnick, editor; Elisabeth Biondi, visuals editor, for Service, portfolio by Platon, September 29.

Also the awesome upsets were: Backpacker beats The New Yorker and Harper’s in the Essay category, Field and Stream beats Vogue, The New Yorker, Bon Appetite and Pop Sci in the 1-2 mill General Excellence category and Reader’s Digest wins the over 2 million circ General Excellence award (I think the Photography Director should get a leg or two off the ellie for this win).

Looks like they’ve managed to avoid the embarrassing handing out of an award to a magazine that doesn’t exist anymore.

Full report (here).

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It must be so sweet to win a Pulitzer Prize (here). Here are the 2009 winners in photography:

13. BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY
For a distinguished example of breaking news photography in black and white or color, which may consist of a photograph or photographs, a sequence or an album, in print or online or both, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Awarded to Patrick Farrell of The Miami Herald for his provocative, impeccably composed images of despair after Hurricane Ike and other lethal storms caused a humanitarian disaster in Haiti.

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: the Associated Press Staff for its haunting chronicle of death, destruction, heartbreak and renewal when an earthquake devastated Sichuan, China, and Carolyn Cole of the Los Angeles Times for her valorous on-the-spot coverage of political violence in Kenya, capturing the terror as rebellion and reprisals jolted the nation.

14. FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
For a distinguished example of feature photography in black and white or color, which may consist of a photograph or photographs, a sequence or an album, in print or online or both, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Awarded to Damon Winter of The New York Times for his memorable array of pictures deftly capturing multiple facets of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Carol Guzy of The Washington Post for her powerfully intimate coverage of the perils and sorrow of childbirth in Sierra Leone, where women face the world’s highest rate of maternal mortality, and Sonya Hebert of The Dallas Morning News for her empathetic portrait of palliative care in a Texas medical center as terminally ill patients cope with the end of their lives.

Found it on Robert Bensons Blog.

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